Later Afternoons
by Kaitos-V-ibrator
Summary: Kotori is dragging Cathy off to a girls night out to meet the popular idol, Robin but little does she know her plans will be compromised by a passing friend


Leaning back against her seat as she idly tossed bits of paper onto the back of Yuma's sleeping head, Kotori sighed to herself as the day wore on. Just a few more minutes left in class, and she could finally get going! She had her entire afternoon planned out, and seeing as Yuma was most likely to go off and bother Shark about something, she could have some free time to herself to meet him!

See, her and a couple of the other girls were going to go to Robin's latest showing! He was going to be dueling in front of everyone using a deck themed to his show! Oh, she just couldn't wait!

She would usually drag Yuma around to one of these things, and seeing as it was a duel he would probably be willing to go this time, but it took her quite literally weeks to get tickets!

Either way, it would be fun to go out with Cathy and the others to have a little girl time. She'd admit it, Cathy was kind of alright every now and again, and with the prospect of actually seeing Robin in person again—

Well she needed SOMEONE who understood!

As inisistant that her friend was that cats would just swallow up robins, she managed to convince her to come for a little girls day out.

Cathy was pretty quick on her feet, and if the other girls were lagging behind, she wouldn't feel bad about rushing forward with her.

Covering her mouth to stop herself from smiling as Yuma jolted up, Kotori patted his head and slung her bad around her shoulder,

"Finally awake now are we?" she teased, unable to surpress her smile as Yuma looked around for the source of the paper that had fallen from his back.

She gave Astral a quick wink, and waved in farewell. It was so nice being able to see Astral now! She could write him little notes during class and have someone to chat with when Yuma decided to pass out.

Yuma looked around a bit groggily for a second, then jolted out of his seat,

"See you later, Kotori! Shark promised he'd tag duel with me and Kaito!" now suddenly bursting with energy, Yuma broke away from the room in a hurry as Astral gave Kotori a quiet wave and departed with his companion.

Such silly boys, always thinking about dueling and such. To be honest, she was starting to feel kind of bad for leaving Yuma out of seeing Robin's duel; but seeing him so excited to duel with Kaito and Shark, she quickly dismissed these thoughts.

He was one of her closest friends and she found herself rarely doing much anything without him. They just always seemed to be around together, through the tougher and gentler times.

Robin was just-the most amazing guy ever! But Yuma was in his own way as well. She couldn't help having a bit of a crush on him, just a little friend crush she figured. When she was older, she knew she would find someone cool and mature that would completely and totally sweep her off her feet! Someone just like Robin even! Daring and cool, but caring and dedicated like Yuma.

A tough order, but she was a tough girl! And she wouldn't settle for anything better, just—

Just she needed to make sure no crazy girls like Anna came and tried to take advantage of Yuma, that's all. He was just a kid, and had no idea how to deal with girls

Sighing to herself and resigning to shake her head a bit knowingly at Yuma's faded figure, Kotori turned around to meet Cathy.

"So you ready to go, or what?" she grinned, unable to contain herself. She couldn't wait to get going!

"Nya, let's go already then! Sighing to herself and resigning to shake her head a bit knowingly at Yuma's faded figure, Kotori turned around to meet Cathy.

"So you ready to go, or what?" she grinned, unable to contain herself. She couldn't wait to get going!

"Nya, let's go already then! I'm sure this boy you're going on about isn't as cool as Yuma anyways,"

Rolling her eyes and gesturing for the other girls to join them, Kotori grinned a bit wider as Cathy clammed up immediately.

It seemed she wasn't used to talking to larger crowds, well, unless they were cats, but that was just fine!

Squeezing Cathy's hand in encouragment, Kotori exchanged dazed looks of excitment and glamor as they looked down at their tickets.

"Aww, you're the C-C-Cat girl, right?" one of the girls adressed Cathy recklessly.

"I...uh..." she stuttered faintly, taking this as a harsh jibe against her. Oh why did it have to be in such a big group? Maybe she could make up some kind of excuse...although...she did want to spend some time with Kotori. She was kind of nice when it came down to it, and she had promised to see this bird-boy with her. Bailing out now-well it didn't seem like something a real friend would do.

"Her name's Cathy," Kotori broke out a bit harshly, giving her friend another reassuring squeeze.

"Ah! Yeah that's it! Wow, no, it was so cool seeing you duel during the duel carnival! Man, I wish I was that good!" She praised, nodding over at the other girls in agreement.

Cathy was yet again caught on her own words.

They...thought she was cool? She had...never heard anyone say that about her...

"Yeah! You know she collected three heart pieces and would have gotten into the tournament-" dragging Cathy beside her as they made their way down the hall, Kotori paused realizing she had left her gazer-phone back in the class room.

"Ah, why don't you tell them about it? All about how you threw that duel with that lonely little girl, and it was just the greatest of you!" she cheered on, giving her friend a quick hug before departing, "I need to grab my phone! I'll meet you all in a flash!" Declawing Cathy from her arm and shooting her a quick wink, Kotori hurried off back to the class room.

It was sure to deserted at this time of day, so she shouldn't have any kind of interuptions in retrieving her phone.

Upon entering the room she cast a quick glance around the room to curiously enough find a few people lingering behind.

Waving over at Takashi who was scolding Tokunosuke about something, Kotori dug through her desk to grab her phone.

Ah, in all the excitment she had just left it out there in the open! How clumsy of her.

Placing her phone back into her bag and smiling confidently down at her ticket, Kotori looked back up to find herself alone in the classroom with none other than Takashi.

"Hey class rep! What are you hanging out alone here for?" she asked casually, not really caring much for an answer. That was bad of her-but she was going to go see Robin actually in person! Oh, it was too exciting! She could feel bad later.

"Hmm? Oh, not hanging around, just doing some general maitence work"

"...you mean cleaning?" she further inquired, wondering why he was doing it alone. "You know we're suppose to do it in pairs, right? You can't clean this whole place up by yourself, it'll take hours!"

"Ah, that's fine. Thank you Kotori, umm, aren't you going to be late for your show with Cathy?" he asked casually, leaning against the desk and smiling a bit sheepishly over at her. He wasn't used to talking to her, let alone anyone else, all by himself.

"O-oh-oh! Oh you're right!" she flustered, hurrying back towards the door. Huh..she wasn't sure if any of the boys paid any attention to what she did. Well, he was the class rep after all, he probably knew everything about everyone or something.

Waving back at him and casting him a smile, Kotori felt her lips fall as she looked to see him go straight back to work.

Shrugging to herself slightly, she only realized once she was out in the hall she hadn't gotten a straight answer out of him.

Did he always do all the cleaning by himself?

Shaking away these thoughts, Kotori looked back down at her ticket for a moment

"Hey, hey! Hey Mimi!" she called out to one of the girls from a year below her.

"A-ah, hello Kotori!" she smiled pleasantly, bowing her head slightly.

"Do you want a ticket to go see Robin?" she began rushing, shoving the ticket into the younger girls hands.

"W-wah-I-he's been sold out for months! K-Kotori, is this your-"

"Sorry, have to go! Prior commitment, go tell Cathy and the other girls I sent you! Stick by Cathy, okay? Thanks!" Darting back in the other direction towards the classroom, Kotori hardly noticed as she plowed straight into Rio.

"Oww, sorry Rio!" she fumbled, awkwardly patting her head and grinning.

"I-what, do you have a date or something you're late for?" The other girl questioned playfully, only to be given a hurried wave from her friend.

"Sorry can't talk now! Bye!"

Rio shook her head slightly and wondered if Kotori was going to see Michael's boyfriend perform or something? Most of the girls had a crush on him, heh, he was pretty cute to be honest, but those poor girls were forever doomed on those one-sided crushes. 9

Ah well, let them dream.

Huffing and eagerly waving over at Takashi, Kotori stumbled forward and grabbed the sponge from his hands.

"Thought you could use some help! Sorry about running off, needed to hand my ticket off."

"I-you've been planning to go for so long, please don't miss it because of me!" He flustered, burning a deep red as she shot him a quick wink,

"Yeah, but I'd rather hang out with you for a bit. Come on, you can get me ice cream or something for helping you afterwards , okay?" Oh hanging out with Rio so much was really rubbing off on her.

"L-like a-a-thank you, okay!" he nodded eagerly, working harder to sweep away at the classroom floor now.

Smiling over at him and sighing happily to herself, Kotori began working away to help her friend clean up the classroom

"Hey, and be sure to tell me any time you get stuck doing this by yourself, okay? We're friends, and we should help each other out, you know?"

"I...t-thank you...o-of course!" He managed to choke out, turning away so he could quickly blink away tears. He...a...a...friend. A friend who would help him with such trivial things. And...wow...


End file.
